MKB confirms purchase of Romexterra stake

MKB Bank Rt confirmed on Friday that it had signed a contract to purchase a majority stake in Romania's Romexterra Bank, but said it would reveal further details only in the coming week.

Romanian business daily Ziarul Financiar reported on Friday that MKB was preparing to sign a contract for at least a 51% stake in Romexterra and had plans to purchase the whole bank later. The paper estimated Romexterra was worth €100 million, or twice its total assets. Small investors hold 77.13% of Romexterra’s shares, with other shareholders including unions and oil company Petrom.The bank controls just 0.8% of the market, but its profits more than doubled in 2005 to €6.2 million.MKB said in December, 2005, that Bayerische Landesbank, its majority owner, with 89.61% of shares, had decided to make MKB its bridgehead for regional expansion. MKB named Romania as one of the countries in which aimed to purchase a small or mid-sized bank. MKB already bought a bank in Bulgaria, Unionbank, which has a 1.5% market share, for an undisclosed price. The purchase was closed in May. MKB has also been short-listed in a tender to buy Serbia's Panonska banka, for which OTP Bank Nyrt has also submitted an indicative bid. MKB's owners have injected into it a combined Ft 49.65 billion (€177 million) in three capital increases so far in 2006. The shareholders said the capital increase was designed to provide capital necessary to execute the bank's strategy.

Turnover via electronic payment methods continued to rise strongly in 2017, according to data released on Monday by the National Bank of Hungary (MNB). The payment card acceptance network grew by 25%, while 83% of POS terminals supported contactless payment.

Toy stores expect record revenues this year in the Easter period, according to distributors. Although web store revenues are growing, most parents are still buying Easter presents in traditional stores.

Hungarian shipping company Mahart Zrt. will soon call a public procurement tender for the construction of a HUF 2.2 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal at the Port of Csepel on the Danube in the south of Budapest, business daily Világgazdaság reported on Monday.

In a surprise move, the National Bank of Romania has rejected a request for approval by the Romanian unit of Hungaryʼs OTP Bank to acquire 99.28% of Banca Românească from the National Bank of Greece, the lender said in a disclosure posted on the website of the Budapest Stock Exchange (BÉT) early on Monday.

Revenues of the local unit of German automobile manufacturer Audi edged up 1% to EUR 7.136 billion in 2017. Capital expenditures were up 45% at EUR 442 million last year, while the local unitʼs headcount climbed 5.8% to 12,307.

The National Bank of Hungary (MNB) allocated HUF 50 billion of its monetary policy interest rate swaps (MIRS) designed to flatten the yield curve at a tender on Wednesday, state news wire MTI reported.

The Monetary Council of the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) said it would continue to use its extended set of monetary policy instruments, without making any mention of future "fine-tuning," in the minutes from its policy meeting on February 27.

Manuscripts by the 19th century Hungarian composer Ferenc (Franz) Liszt, long thought lost, have been returned to the Liszt Memorial Museum and Research Center after being discovered in a private collection. The music is closely related to Hungary and the Revolution of 1848.

Erbslöh Hungária, a unit of German automotive group WKW, will spend HUF 14 billion to build a 1,500 square-meter production hall and install new surface treatment technology, increasing capacity, in Győr (121 km northwest of Budapest).